This is mostly for myself to remember whenever I start a new Python project. I guess I can replace this in the future with uv, but I’m not 100% convinced yet.

Steps:

1. Install the latest Python version from https://www.python.org/.
2. Go to the directory where your project is located.
3. In the terminal, run:

python3.13 -m venv .venv

4. Then, to activate the virtual environment, run

source .venv/bin/activate
# for fish: source .venv/bin/activate.fish

5. Every other command after that should use python -m ...:

python -m pip install pandas matplotlib

6. Profit 🐍!

Sources:

Mostly stolen from: https://www.bitecode.dev/, specifically:

• Why not use x y z?: https://www.bitecode.dev/p/why-not-tell-people-to-simply-use
• Relieving packaging pain: https://www.bitecode.dev/p/relieving-your-python-packaging-pain

Actually now that I’m reading through these again, it really seems like uv “won”. I guess it’s still useful to have this as a reference for later though.